Any Way You Want Me - By Jamie Sobrato Page 0,15

put it out.

As they passed a huge, twinkling Christmas tree at the edge of the dance floor, she tugged him behind it and pinned him against the wall, where they were concealed from the crowd. Her hand grazed his thigh, then traveled across his pelvis, barely missing his cock. A smile played on her lips, and he knew she was teasing him.

“Am I being too forward?” she asked.

“I like a woman who knows what she wants.”

“So you’re getting my message loud and clear?”

“I think so,” he whispered as he traced his finger along the neckline of her dress, brushing the soft flesh of her breast as he did so.

“Let me spell it out for you,” she whispered. “I want you to take me home and have hot, nasty sex with me all night long.”

He went from half-mast to full in an instant. This didn’t feel like an investigation. It just felt right. He couldn’t think of anything he wanted more than Yasmine naked in his bed.

“Right now?”

“Right now.”

“What about dinner? Aren’t you hungry?”

“Not for food, but we can pick up carryout on the way home.”

Alex didn’t need any further invitation.

He took her by the waist and guided her out from behind the Christmas tree. Through the crowd, out the door, across the hotel lobby, to the parking lot—he didn’t stop until they were at the valet parking stand.

“You think everyone will forget about our having shown up here together by Tuesday?” she asked as they waited for her car.

“Not a chance.”

“You think we’ll inspire a new sex game idea? Maybe a holiday-themed one—Christmas Party Hookup?”

Alex laughed. “If that’s the title of our next software release, we’ll know where the idea came from.”

“I guess a little gossip’s not so bad. They’ll have something more interesting to talk about than the latest gadgets they got for Christmas.”

“You don’t care what people think?”

“It doesn’t make any difference if I care. People will think what they want to think.”

That was probably the attitude that helped her remain a criminal without remorse.

For a moment Alex came to his senses and felt the urge to stop this speeding train while he still had the chance. But he glanced over at Yasmine, her face lit by the glow of the hotel lights, and the doubt disappeared. He’d wanted her for years, now he could get rid of all that wanting.

Yasmine had exposed to him his biggest weakness, and it was her.

4

YASMINE HAD SPENT way too many years controlling her rebellious impulses. But she’d learned her lesson as a teenager—rebellion can have consequences. Severe consequences.

She followed Kyle up the stairs to his apartment and tried to ignore the whirl of excitement growing in her belly. What she should do was eat some Kung Pao Chicken, kiss Kyle good-night, and go home. Forget this whole crazy sex idea. She knew better by now than to follow her wild impulses, because they’d only ever led her into serious trouble.

Hacking had started out as simply an interesting challenge. She’d been a typical teenager—bored, angry and sick of her parents—only, with a gift for invading computer systems. Then hacking had grown into an act of defiance when she’d realized how much power she wielded on the Internet, and how much it would piss off her oblivious parents if they found out what she’d been up to.

Of course, they found out right before the whole world did, and they’d been furious. For once, she’d had their undivided attention.

Teen Girl Hacks Government Computers had been one of the many headlines splashed across newspapers. Her parents had thought granting the press permission to use her photo would teach her a lesson, but all the exposure had really accomplished was to create a weird cult of celebrity around her and the case.

In the months before her trial, she’d had to close her e-mail account because of all the whacked messages she’d received from guys who thought she was the hottest thing since Internet porn.

The two-year period of her prosecution and imprisonment was the worst of her life. She’d prided herself on learning a lesson from the ordeal, and she’d vowed not to cross paths with the law again.

But some little part of her, some barely controllable impulse, ached to go wild again. She didn’t have to break the law. In fact, she saw now that maybe she’d gone a little too far in the opposite direction, trading in an interesting life for the confines of a law-abiding one.

She’d become too good at avoiding trouble.

She could back